Behind the Scenes of Goblin: A Five-Year Chase, Korea's First Quebec Location, and the 20.5% Record

At 8pm on 2nd December 2016, tvN's Friday-Saturday drama *Goblin: The Lonely and Great God* aired its first episode. The show, which marks its tenth anniversary this December, had been in development for three years before filming began — and securing its lead actor alone took five.

A five-year pursuit

At the press conference on 22nd November 2016, screenwriter Kim Eun-sook revealed that she had been trying to cast Gong Yoo for five years. For Gong Yoo, the role marked his return to television after roughly four years away, following KBS's *Big*. He had long declined the project, and only changed his mind after meeting the writer in person. His eventual reply came by text message: "If a goblin this full of fear is acceptable to you, then I'll do it." At the same press conference, he admitted that playing a non-human character had made him nervous. "I was worried about the burden of it," he said.

The other cast members had their own stories. Lee Dong-wook said he had actively wanted the role of the Grim Reaper from the start. Kim Go-eun, who plays Ji Eun-tak, confessed she had long been a fan of Gong Yoo. Yoo In-na praised the script, saying that as an actress she could find nothing to dislike in any of the characters Kim Eun-sook had written.

A director who quit his job, and a first shoot in a Bucheon bookshop

The series was directed by Lee Eung-bok, who had previously helmed *Descendants of the Sun*. In August 2016, Lee submitted his resignation from KBS — which was accepted — to take on the project. The production company, Hwa & Dam Pictures, confirmed that he was the right director for *Goblin*. Filming was scheduled to begin in September 2016. At the press conference, Lee joked that after *Descendants of the Sun* he had expected something smaller in scale. "Then this enormous fantasy landed in my lap," he said, feigning grievance.

One of the first scenes to be filmed was the initial meeting between Kim Go-eun and Yook Sungjae (of idol group BTOB), shot on 19th September at a bookshop in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. According to the production team, both actors greeted every member of the crew individually before filming began. Yook Sungjae reportedly improvised a range of expressions and physical gestures during a physically animated scene, drawing laughter on set. Kim Go-eun, meanwhile, sat off to the side during Yook's solo close-ups to deliver his scene partner's lines for him.

Korea's first drama shoot in Quebec

The production's most striking setting was Quebec, Canada. Reports at the time of broadcast noted that *Goblin* was the first Korean drama to film on location in the province. Director Lee explained at the press conference that, because an extended overseas shoot was not feasible, he focused the Quebec sequences tightly on the romance between the two leads. The Fairmont Le Château Frontenac hotel, which features prominently in those scenes, subsequently became a draw for Korean tourists. One local travel agency reported that bookings for Canadian travel packages from South Korea rose by more than 70% after the show aired — though as this figure comes from a single operator, it cannot be taken as representative of the industry as a whole.

Incheon alleyways and a buckwheat field in Gochang

Domestic filming locations attracted considerable attention as well. In Incheon, the production used the second-hand bookshop alley in the Baedari district and Jayu (Freedom) Park. The scene in episode one in which Ji Eun-tak summons the goblin was filmed at Jayu Park; the scene in episode five in which he tracks her down while she is reading was shot at Hanmi Bookshop in the Baedari alley. A date sequence in episode four was filmed at Cheongna Lake Park, and a travel scene in episode thirteen at the Gyeongwonjae Ambassador Hotel in Songdo. Incheon Tourism Organisation subsequently packaged these sites into three designated "Goblin routes" for visitors.

In North Jeolla Province, the Neungpeuldeul farm in Gochang — renowned for its sweeping buckwheat fields — is widely identified as the location for the drama's firefly-lit meadow scenes, though this has been reported only in travel and tourism coverage rather than confirmed directly by the production.

When supporting characters become co-leads

Pop-culture critic Park Ji-jong described Kim Eun-sook's achievement as "turning supporting characters into joint protagonists." The parallel storyline of the Grim Reaper (Lee Dong-wook) and Sunny, a fried-chicken shop owner played by Yoo In-na, was given enough weight to sustain its own dramatic arc. At the press conference, Kim Eun-sook said of the goblin: "This time the hero is a god — not even a chaebol can beat him. He is magnificently cool." She also admitted she had worried that the fantasy genre might look ridiculous, but that the historical sequences turned out more majestic than she had anticipated. "I had goosebumps the whole time I was watching," she said.

The 20.5% record

The finale, broadcast on 21st January 2017, averaged 20.5% in paid-household ratings measured by Nielsen Korea, peaking at 22.1%. The previous cable television record had been held by *Reply 1988*, whose finale reached 19.6%. Among female viewers in their forties, the instantaneous peak rating hit 33.8%. International performance was also reported: cumulative views on iQIYI Taiwan exceeded one million, and the show topped the charts on DramaFever — a streaming platform serving North America, Canada, and Latin America — at the time.

At the press conference, Kim Eun-sook had playfully urged viewers: "Watch *Legend of the Blue Sea* on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and our drama *Goblin* on Fridays and Saturdays." She noted that she and *Legend of the Blue Sea* writer Park Ji-eun were both under the same production banner, Studio Dragon, adding with a laugh that they were "eating from the same pot."

Assessment

*Goblin* was a drama in which every element aligned at once: a casting pursuit that lasted five years, a location that no Korean drama had visited before, and a narrative architecture that elevated its supporting cast to lead status. The fantasy on screen was remarkable; the time invested to put it there was longer still.